


Kitsune Reborn

by Little_vesuvius



Series: The Uzumaki Clan in BNHA [1]
Category: Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: And then when he died Kushina insisted on making him her son, As in the Kyuubi no Youko is a human now, Chaotic Good Kurama, Chapter One is One of the Heaviest I Promise, Discrimination and Anger Aimed at a Child, Empathic Kurama, Endeavor's Issues Had To Come From Somewhere, Endeavor's Shitty Family, Gen, He Just Needs Time, He spent Naruto's very long life happily partnered to him after the Fourth War, Human Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kurama is 6 years younger than Enji Physically, Kurama is Going to be Okay, Kurama is Not Okay, Kurama is Todoroki Kirin, Kurama the Vigilante - Coming Soon, Kurama wants to be Neutral but Naruto's Memory won't Let him, Kurama was adopted by Naruto into the family, Kurama was changed by Naruto for the better, Multi, Non-Canon elements of Naruto involved, Note: Kurama views Naruto as a brother, Or someone who looks like a child, Protective Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama, So Kurama is about to tangle with some nasty villains, Spoilers for Parts 1 and 2 of Naruto, TW: Discussions of Discrimination against Quirkless Children and Adults, TW: Discussions of Discrimination and Explicit Discrimination against People with Villainous Quirks, TW: Non-Explicit Child Abuse in Chapter One, Takes place during the rise of All Might, The Todoroki Children Need Help, You Have Been Warned, for all they know Kurama's a kid, in chapter one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 22:37:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20181856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_vesuvius/pseuds/Little_vesuvius
Summary: Uzumaki Kurama is reborn as the third child of the Todoroki family; Todoroki Kirin, to Todoroki Saru and his wife, Todoroki Akemi.  He is, for all intents and purposes, quirkless.  But Kurama is far from powerless, and as he grows older, he will shake the world down to its very foundations by working to change it, just as Naruto would have.(Kurama was happy with his afterlife, spending it with his best friend and family, far out of the reach of his wannabe-god grandmother.  Now he's in a world where Kekkei-Genkai like powers are considered normal, ripped out of his happy afterlife, and finds out that this world's just as discriminating as his old one.  Naturally, he thinks this is stupid, and he wants to hide from the world but thanks to Naruto, he knows he can change it, not just watch it happen.  So he will.)(Takes place while All Might is in America and later, while he's trying to take down AFO.  Also featuring up-and-coming heroes in future parts and a LOT of vigilantes.  Kurama is part of the parents' generation of the BNHA children.)





	Kitsune Reborn

**Author's Note:**

> This is an exploratory piece about what would happen if a character who really, really doesn't want to be a hero feels called to be one. It's partly inspired by "reverse" by blackkat, but it morphed into its own thing not far down the line. 
> 
> Effectively, for all of you who are unfamiliar with Naruto: Kurama is the strongest of the Nine Tailed Demons, the Fox, and spent a long time being hated by humans (and when you're an empath that leaves A MARK), and then had this warm sunshine child Naruto living magically (sorta) bonded to him for life. In this universe, Naruto lived for 254 years, and they both passed on peacefully. Constant exposure to Naruto (who is kind and forgiving to people to a fault) changed Kurama's outlook on everything, but I h/c that he started out kind. Even a kind person has a hard time not hating people who hate them, especially if they're only ever treated like a monster (thank you blackkat for driving that point home for me in 'reverse' and 'backslide.')
> 
> (I mostly blame the lack of scary/cool villains for kickstarting this fanfic, and the strong desire for someone to adopt the entire Todoroki family minus Endeavor. Kurama's not a villain (I will tag it if he ever becomes one with a warning) but there will definitely be some misunderstandings down the line. The most he does is commit some theft crimes as a child and frames people (his very deserving birth family) for tax fraud.)
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea. Also, expect references to events that didn't happen in Naruto, because the ending was disappointing to me and the idea was interesting.
> 
> Trigger Warning for this chapter: Kurama is dealing with psychological and physical abuse from literally everyone in his house except Enji by the time Kirin is 5. He will not be dealing with this like a normal child because he is not, and it is not explicit, but the Todoroki Family is not a kind place to grow up in. 
> 
> Additional Trigger Warning: Young Enji is NOT a bad person in this fanfic, at least not to start out with. He will develop in a direction, but that direction is one he chooses. Like Bakugo, I h/c that a lot of his behavior is something learned.

Todoroki Kirin is born the third child of Todoroki Akemi and Todoroki Saru after a very difficult pregnancy. 

He is small. Unlike either of his siblings, he resembles his mother, Todoroki Akemi, the most in looks — he has fiery, blazing red hair and bright blue eyes, with a slender build. He isn’t delicate — none of the Todoroki children are truly delicate — but he doesn’t have the bulky strength of his brother Enji, who resembles Saru the most, or the control and heat-sink gifts of Akari, his sister. He’s built like a dancer, slim and compact, where his siblings are towering in power and skill for their age.

He’s a delicate child. 

He’s small for his age, and he doesn’t manifest a quirk at birth, unlike Akemi — Saru tests him three times before Akemi tells him to leave it be; that he will develop a quirk in time or not at all. She cares for him, but by the time he’s old enough to understand the difference between ‘care’ and ‘love,’ he knows she doesn’t love him the way she loves his siblings.

He is kept out of training. Akari is never burned touching their father and Enji is learning hand-to-hand with her from the moment Kirin can walk. And Kirin is not treated like them.

He doesn’t know why.

(A part of him suspects, but he’s too young to understand what it whispers.)

At the age of four, his parents become aware of three strange red markings on either cheek, slowly coming into focus on his face. It’s a sign he might have a quirk and it makes his parents and siblings very happy for him; for all they are a traditional household, they do care about each other to a degree. So much so that his parents start trying to encourage him to manifest a quirk, but nothing happens. The marks grow darker as he starts training until they are a deep, bloody red.

He’s told that he’s kept inside to protect him. It takes him some time to realize they want him to present a quirk — that he’s only allowed to talk to people who don’t know.

(He learns too late what that means, and what they’re really protecting him from.)

He starts having nightmares shortly after that. 

Vivid and in color. So real he feels them in his bones and soul.

Nightmares of being thousands of feet tall, of just waving a single  _ tail  _ and making a mountain erupt with fire, of calling up storms when he roars and raining destruction all over the landscape of a place he doesn’t recognize as home. He dreams and he wakes, every night, because he wakes up trapped in darkness at the end of every one, bound in chains. He has no idea how to express why he’s so scared but the minute he walks into his father’s dojo and sees chains connecting two nunchucks together, he starts crying uncontrollably.

(He doesn’t know why but the chains hurt. They hurt because they hurt his heart and make him ache for sunlight he will never see again.)

The day he sees a fox on their property, injured, he brings it inside. He tries to care for it, and though Saru and Akemi are disapproving, the fox adores him. Follows him everywhere. Enji is jealous — he no longer holds his brother’s adoration, not as the fox does when Kirin realizes he can speak to the kit — and this jealousy sparks into anger, while Akari’s sparks into determination to outshine him. His parents begin to suspect his quirk is related to foxes, and allow him to keep it.

(It is so much more than they believe. Much later, he will laugh until he cries at their ignorance.)

He releases the fox back into the wild when it’s healed. He won’t subject it to their parents’ tests.

The fox is never seen around their property again.

Their parents and his siblings keep an annoyingly close eye on him after that.

Once he turns five and doesn’t manifest a quirk, Kirin’s life changes.

(And not for the better.)

His siblings start avoiding him when he doesn’t manifest a quirk. When a doctor proclaims him quirkless, his father calls him a disappointment; is ashamed to be related to him.

His mother, who tries — she believes, she truly believes he has a latent quirk — to love him, is the only one who comes to soothe his nightmares away and even she comes to him less and less often. She’s the one who insists on taking him to see a quirkologist to see if the doctor is right, or not. And more and more often Saru comes and punishes him for making such a ruckus. They won’t take him to get help, though Akemi mentions his nightmares to a quirkologist, who suggests that it’s possible his quirk is blocked because of trauma or an encounter with a psychic.

None of them believe the quirkologist. 

Todoroki Kirin is quirkless at the age of five.

The world is unkind to quirkless children.

Kirin remembers what he says and remembers what he learns, and soon he grows used to being alone and awake in the dark. By the time he turns six years old he has dark circles around his eyes and sleeps less than eight hours total a night, because every time he sleeps, he sees chains and blood and darkness. He’s learned it won’t end well to wake screaming so he stops almost as suddenly as he starts.

He sees cages, he sees death, and he sees rotating, angry red eyes with rings of tomoe in them. He doesn’t understand why, but he can’t shake the feeling they’re watching him. Always watching, always  _ hurting _ . 

He’s always angry after these dreams. He doesn’t know why.

The first time Akari runs into him after he turns six, eyes red from activation of her quirk in training, Kirin won’t go near her. She’s gentler with him, but he won’t look her in the eye—and he won’t look their mother in the eye later either. His markings are growing darker and his world is, too, as he is deemed ready for training. Saru pushes him hard, and so does Akemi, both of them determined to pull a quirk out of him however they can. Every single training session leaves burns all over him, but, because they are used to their children’s burn resistance, none of them notice the speed with which he recovers from the injuries — that he gets better so, so,  _ so  _ much quicker than a normal person, and that he never once receives a scar.

(His parents are fools. He knows he heals far faster than a normal person.)

Over time he gets better and better at martial arts—mixed martial arts, at that—and he takes to the speed and strength training like a natural. 

(He improves too quickly to be human, but no one notices.)

Akemi never guesses that such a subtle thing might be his quirk. She helps him a bit at the beginning, as she is his mother, but she loves him all the less every day — he can tell. Then, when he turns seven, Akemi finds out she’s barren — that something scorched her womb when she gave birth, scarring her so she can’t have more children, and the doctors suggest her youngest is responsible. 

It makes the whole family look at him differently. And Akemi grows cold toward her youngest, leaving Kirin to chase after a brother and a sister who are both leaving him behind.

Enji, meanwhile, becomes angrier as he grows older, because his little brother looks up to him, and yet he  _ has a quirkless brother _ — which is bad in the eyes of society. He wants to do right by his father and he wants to do right by his brother, and he’s pulled in two directions. Kirin adores him, outright  _ adores him _ , and cheers him on every time he uses his quirk. Every time, it reminds Enji of their childhood and while it makes him angry — and watching Saru  _ hit _ his younger brother makes Enji even  _ angrier _ . Enji pushes himself to become better, to take the brunt of their parents’ attention off of Kirin.

For a time, it works.

And Kirin is close to Enji.

Akari is closer to their father than their mother. Close enough to learn that Saru needed three children with perfect quirks and a quirkless son isn’t in the cards. Close enough to absorb Saru’s poor opinion of Kirin — she takes to calling him useless where Enji and Akemi can’t hear — and close enough to not notice how absurdly  _ fast _ Kirin’s gotten. Then their parents try for another child.

It takes them six months to figure out that Akemi’s womb can’t support another child because her insides are scarred from the last one. Saru is blamed at first — at least until Akemi confirms that her own quirk should have protected her from such scarring, as while Saru can produce flames at about 800˚C, Akemi’s quirk makes her heatproof — and Kirin is taken back to a quirkologist. The Quirkologist does more tests, finds that he does in fact have the genetic signs for a quirk, and suggests that that is his quirk. 

That is the last day Akemi looks at Todoroki Kirin as her son.

(It’s also the beginning of the end for Todoroki Kirin. But she’ll never learn that.)

Akari begins pushing Kirin harder and harder in training, knowing he has a latent quirk that he can’t use. Enji tries to step in, and soon it becomes common for Enji and Akari to fight over their younger brother’s training. Because Enji argues that he  _ couldn’t _ help it and bringing out his quirk is a dangerous gamble, but, as the bone of contention Kirin is often treated poorly by one and then not the other of his siblings.

Saru begins punishing Enji for treating him kindly that year.

Meanwhile, his dreams grow ever-darker, and his memories ever stronger.

Todoroki Kirin is eight years old when he fully remembers. When he wakes in the middle of the night with a name on his lips, before he wakes and realizes he is  _ alive _ and he shouldn’t be and he is  _ a human  _ this time around. Before he realizes just what it is he has in his skin, just why he can hear and smell so well and just why he is supposedly quirkless.

Todoroki Kirin goes to bed the night of his eighth birthday, and Uzumaki Kurama, the soul-brother of Uzumaki Naruto, the adopted son of Namikaze-Uzumaki Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, and the reformed, reborn Kyuubi no Youko wakes with Naruto’s name on his lips the next morning.

And promptly collapses into his covers, on his futon, crying as silently as he can into his pillow, because he is  _ alive, _ his best friend is  _ gone _ , and he has  _ nothing _ in this new world.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Once Kirin turns eight, Enji begins to see things change around his younger, quirkless brother. Before, Kirin was always happy to chase after him, trying to mimic him and even in awe of his quirk. The morning of Kirin’s eighth birthday is the day Enji applies for UA, and the day that Kirin staggers downstairs at 0500, ready to train and looking like death warmed over. Enji almost forces him to sit at the table, giving him Enji’s food — their parents don’t feed him nearly enough — and as soon as he’s gulped down some miso soup, the boy refuses any more food. His facial lines — almost like whisker marks — are darker, and thicker, almost  _ black _ and scorched, and he looks like he’s spent most of the night crying.

Enji doesn’t know what to do. He’s fourteen years old and he can’t help his little brother. His parents won’t allow it. He doesn’t know how to help him, but he tries. If their parents see him being kind to Kirin, Enji will hurt but he decides for today, it’s worth it. For today at least, to try to bring some of that light back into Kirin’s eyes.

For the rest of the day, Kirin is silent. He gives token ‘thanks’ murmurs to his brother, and Enji does his best to keep their father’s attention on him. Akemi hasn’t ever actually  _ hurt _ him, and Akari won’t do anything with Enji around, but when she’s told she’s training with him Enji knows he can’t stop it.

Knows and hates it.

But Kirin is different today. 

Today, when Akari taunts him for being quirkless, he gives her a smile. And it’s not a nice smile. 

Enji’s seen kinder smiles on villain’s faces on TV. He doesn’t like where this is going.

Even with her quirk letting her track him, Enji watches in astonishment as Kirin  _ takes down _ their sister without any injuries. Akari is furious, and Saru tries to step in, but Kirin dodges him as nimble and quick as he is, incorporating something — oddly acrobatic into his movements, though some of his blows don’t land. Like he’s expecting his reach to be farther. Enji is floored when he recognizes his  _ own _ fighting style is the thing Kirin’s using against them, and more than a little jealous, and he can’t help it —  _ Kirin is kicking their sister’s ass with it _ , and Enji can barely move that smoothly with it.

(This is, he learns much later, the beginning of the Fox. But right now he can only see a brother he is fond of finally succeeding and he’s happy for him.)

When Akari and Saru are both on the ground, groaning in pain, Kirin turns burning, dark, near-violet eyes—Enji has to be seeing things, his brother’s eyes can’t change color—on him and asks, quietly, “You want to try?”

Enji wordlessly shakes his head. He hasn’t ever  _ liked _ how their parents treat his little brother and he’s never had someone look up to him so much as to take his fighting style—and yes, part of him burns at that — and use it so effectively. It was astonishingly well-fought for an eight-year-old, and though Kirin has burns all over his arms, is sweating and tired, he’s just about proven that being quirkless does  _ not _ mean helpless.

Enji does what he can to help him after that, but he understands that there is a wall there that he can’t pull down. There is something in his brother’s eyes he doesn’t recognize that day, and Akari seems leery of even trying to train against him after that. Saru does, too, and Akemi won’t look at him anymore — not after the first time Kirin catches her hand and flips her for trying to hit him.

Kirin is given extra-special training from Saru the minute the man is off the floor with a gruff, “At least you’re not helpless,” and Enji is helpless to stop it.

When he gets into UA, with the top score on the entrance exam, he worries. Endlessly. He can’t leave Kirin at home for so long, so fast, and yet he gets into UA not on recommendation but on sheer force of will and using all of Kirin’s moves. The day he gets home, he’s given a party—thrown one, really—and Kirin is nowhere to be seen.

It takes him three days to find that his parents have locked Kirin in the cellar, rather than letting him stay at their aunt’s, as they lie to him very well. Akari doesn’t say anything — and it makes Enji  _ furious _ , really, because he doesn’t know what to do, he doesn’t know how to stop this and, for once, his parents’ attention is focused on him. 

It’s like his brother doesn’t exist. It makes him  _ furious _ .

(It burns him so many years later to hear Kitsune taunt him for his treatment of quirkless children. He is nothing like his parents. Except, he is, at that point.)

When he hears a near-silent sob from the cellar door, Enji practically rips the door off its hinges to find his youngest brother curled up on a thin blanket in the corner of the family cellar. Enji nearly goes postal on both of his parents and threatens his father with a police investigation for mistreating his brother — Todoroki Saru is not a pro hero but he  _ is _ an upstanding businessman and his business will suffer for it. Kirin is near-silent for the rest of the year when Enji finally backs down due to his own placement at UA being threatened, because being a pro hero is  _ literally _ all he’s ever wanted.

He doesn’t realize it but, later in life, when the Black Fox has the opportunity to taunt him,  _ this _ is what he uses. That this is what he remembers.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Kurama is used to being hated. 

After spending thousands of years around humans who hated him for all he was worth, he’s not surprised it’s happening again without Naruto here to act as a buffer. It’s not that surprising that his new family, if family they can even be called, treat him like he’s worth less than trash. Only his brother Enji, who Kirin—not Kurama, not exactly—had hero-worship for really protected him and Enji is nearly breaking under the weight of their parents’ expectations. 

Enji’s barely fifteen when he gets into UA, the most prestigious school in the nation. Enji has always wanted to be a hero and he’s always had the ability, he just spends so much time worrying over disappointing their parents that it holds him back. It’s far too much like the Uchiha clan for his liking — with time and space from their parents, Enji  _ might _ become better, but it would take a miracle. He reminds Kurama of Uchiha Itachi, in many ways devoted to his family and twisted up inside about his own expectations. And Itachi was one of the few decent Uchiha in the world, having the courage and the guts to die for what he believed in and sacrifice his family for the sake of the world. 

But even that brat wouldn’t abandon his brother for something as foolish as his placement at a school. Itachi murdered his entire family for Sasuke’s sake, and Kurama has no doubt Enji will never be that compassionate. Enji is nothing more than a mocking pale imitation of Itachi, and Kurama can only see Naruto when he closes his eyes and wishes and prays and  _ hopes _ for a way out.

When Kurama’s locked in the cellar, he doesn’t expect anyone to come for him. He’ll get out on his own, and he can handle it.

It’s worse than he expects.

The instant the door closes he has an epic meltdown.

Those three days he spends in meditation after sorting through his panic attack, sorting through his memories and struggling to deal with an eight-year-old’s betrayal and his own PTSD — he’s not an idiot, he knows he has it, even with Naruto’s help and that soothing time spent with his father in the afterlife — from being locked away in dark, lonely cages for most of his life. It’s still terrifying, and Kurama doesn’t even try to reach for his chakra even as he suspects he has it. 

He can’t risk hurting anyone with it until he’s in control of it.

And he doesn’t want anyone to know that he — that any of them — have so much potential locked up inside them. They don’t deserve to know about this power, this society that treats quirkless children like they’re worthless. Another quirkless child, yes, but not  _ this _ family, and not  _ this _ society.

A society that treats powerless civilians like they’re worse than trash deserves to suffer the fucking consequences when the Nine Tailed Demon Fox returns.

(Naruto whispers in the back of his mind that they deserve a chance, that they don’t understand and Kurama wants to cry but he can’t. Naruto’s right, is the thing — they don’t understand. This family in particular doesn’t deserve his sympathy but, like Uzumaki Naruto, there are good people in the world. He’s just in a family of shitty people.)

He’d never expected Enji —  _ Enji _ , who was somewhat distant from him as a child—to be the reason he’s treated better. Enji practically threatens to blow the roof off of their parents’ business enterprise, and Kurama has hope for the first time that maybe this world can be changed. Maybe. And maybe he can be the one to do it.

Naruto wouldn’t want him to leave children to suffer like this.

If Naruto were here, he’d grin that stupid fucking grin of his and tell Kurama they could do it. 

(He’d do it, too.)

So Kurama won’t tear this society down — he’ll save the children who are treated poorly by it. He’ll do right by Naruto and help these poor kids.

The thought spurs him onward.

That night, Kurama reaches for his chakra, rather than sleeping. A warm sensation curls in his stomach and he lifts his shirt up to reveal the same Six Paths of Heaven Seal that Naruto put on his own body. Kurama laughs as quietly as he can until he cries, because his best friend’s warm, familiar effort at containing power is there, and Kurama’s chakra is warm, inviting, and friendly. His burns heal in less than a second, and he watches as his fingernails become claws at the same time. His senses sharpen, and even when he isn’t using his chakra, isn’t sensing the world around him they remain so.

Quirkless, he may be; but powerless? Absolutely not. Kurama makes a point of learning the chakra signatures of everyone in the house, and is pleasantly surprised to find that his empathic power survived the transfer, too. 

He’s displeased to find just what sort of family he’s in. Worse than the Uchihas indeed. Obsessed, greedy, and power-hungry. Even Enji isn’t immune to the feelings, and the praise is going to his head.

The minute he has the chance, he’s leaving. Leaving and never coming back.

Kurama is no longer starved, but it’s made very, very clear to him that if he makes even one peep against how they treat him, his so-called parents will leave him for dead in a ditch or frame a villain into having killed him. He’s not an idiot—he’s able to feel the enmity, the hate and the fear they hold for him. Akari’s feared him since he took her down hard on the first day he woke up, and Saru is torn between hating the fact that his quirkless son is more skilled than his daughter and being proud of the boy for taking such a thing and turning his expectations upside-down. Akemi hates him, and it takes him only a few weeks to learn why—he scorched her womb when she gave birth to him, and she’s barren now.

He wishes he didn’t have the heart to understand why, now.

He wants Naruto to come back and take all this away.

But he is alone. And honestly, with the way this family treats their children, it’s for the best that Akemi can’t have more of them to ruin.

Kurama’s chakra is destructive, for all it’s not corrosive anymore. He can make it corrosive, though he doesn’t try to, and he spends the next few years training with his chakra and his reflexes, staying alive, learning about this world, keeping his head down and trying to at least sway his siblings into being better people. Not for his sake, but for Naruto’s memory, he tries.

Akari, perhaps fearing Enji’s reaction and perhaps his, tries to treat him better after she sees how quiet he’s gotten. He’s quiet because his voice adds nothing to conversations, and he spends as much time as he can studying. He is in a society of people with Kekkei Genkai, an he intends to learn as much as he can about them and  _ use it. _

He is shinobi. Shinobi work in the darkness and in shadows, never in the light, not until Naruto pulled them out. He still has that training, and still knows it’s in his best interests to keep his skills hidden — at least for the time being. 

He didn’t spend over a century locked inside  _ harmless _ people, after all.

The first UA festival he watches, Enji wins the first year’s tournament. It’s not the second years that catch his eye, though — it’s the third year tournament, in which a blond boy named Kino Kazuki, apprenticed to Gran Torino according to the announcer, proceeds to utterly slaughter the competition in a way Kirin’s never seen before,  _ without _ using much of his quirk, that gets Saru’s attention. He can see Enji’s respect for the boy from here, and when the two winners are called for an exhibition match, as Kazuki’s graduating, Kazuki beats him.

Enji’s ‘good match,’ handshake is actually a lot better than Kurama expects of him. But it makes him smile all the same, because it means he’s gotten through to someone.

(It amazes him, many years later, how Enji can’t see Toshinori and Kazuki as the same person, but then, Enji has never been  _ shinobi _ .)

His parents are alternately furious and amazed (Saru mostly furious, but gratified that his son is saving face, and Akemi amazed, and taking a second look at her quirkless son, not that Kurama gives her any doubt) that the third year took down their precious son without using his quirk.

Kazuki graduates and moves overseas not long after, leaving their parents happy because of course, he’s not around to overshadow their precious son.

Enji gets home exhausted and proud of his victory. Akari is amazed and happy when he brings home the trophy for his first year. It’s less happy when, during a quietly tense dinner, Saru brings it up.

“You had a great deal of trouble with that boy, son. What gave you so much trouble?”

The disapproval in Saru’s voice is strong, and Kurama can feel the anger and heat pressing into him. Enji and Akari, both seated next to him to shield him from their parents, are silent and Enji stills his hands on his chopsticks, bringing them back down.

“I had to use most of my stamina in the tournament, Father,” explains Enji, “And he said after the match that he was worried about harming the audience with his quirk. He was incredibly fast even without it, and my water quirk opponent exhausted me, so he was able to take me by surprise. I’ve never seen someone so fast.” He pauses, “I will of course be doing more work on endurance training. He won’t beat my record forever, but I will use that to measure my own growth.” 

Saru smiles proudly “Of course, my boy. I am surprised he managed to make it so far in the tournament, and that he’s in UA at all,” his disapproval and disgust radiate at Kurama very strongly.

(Even people with strong quirks don’t get his approval. Of fucking course.)

“He got in two years ago, with a different exam; one I would imagine is not nearly as stringent,” Enji points out. “And he began in General Studies. General Studies students are usually support or secretaries for Hero agencies, and while he developed a quirk later on, he may never have done so. Quirkless secretaries might be an ace in the hole for a hero agency — not one villain will expect the secretary to be unexpectedly strong, and in the case of a villain like Neutralizer, someone quirkless won’t have a quirk to neutralize. It would make for good information security, as well, though obviously not as good as someone with a secret-keeping quirk.”

Saru ‘hmm’s’ in agreement, the disapproval fading, and Akemi adds “If you manage to scout a boy like that, you should hire them at your agency. Better safe than sorry.”

Enji nods “I’d like to recruit his friend — not quirkless but only has a size alteration quirk — because I know how good she is. She’s bilingual, and in my year, so I’m working to catch up to and surpass her in English class. And Kino might have the top spot now, but he won’t forever,” he smiles, “Even fighting quirkless, he’s a fun challenge.”

Saru beams, but there is a darkness to it, a determination to see his son succeed above all else “Very good thinking, Enji. Just make sure he doesn’t beat your record.”

Enji snorts “How can he? He might have the advantage now, but he’s not going to beat me out for good. Father, I will beat him, but I will also try to scout him once we’re both pros. Chances are, I can convince him to join my agency once I start out.” 

The emotional undertone to the conversation convinces Kurama that he’s right. His so-called family will never learn of chakra from him. 

He’s going to watch the sports festival next year and root for Kino Kazuki’s friend. Because his brother needs to get taken down a few pegs if he’s actually  _ buying _ the shit their parents are shoveling at him.

The rest of dinner is lighter, once Saru understands that his son isn’t elevating a quirkless boy above all others. He turns a calculating eye toward Kurama at the end, though, which unsettles him. He has no intention of working a boring old hero agency secretarial job, but he knows his schoolwork is about to become much more important to his father.

That night, Saru takes him aside into the study, and shuts the door. It locks with a  _ click _ , and Kurama prepares himself to fight, or potentially dive out the window and use chakra to cushion his fall.

He is ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

(His family have never noticed. More fool them. He’s only here so he isn’t picked up and forced into an orphanage.)

“You are quirkless, Kirin, and for many years I have believed it was your failing. Today I saw a quirkless boy nearly beat our Enji.” Kurama can feel the ambition the man has for him almost immediately, and it sickens him. “Your training starts tomorrow; I will be teaching you the ins and outs of secretarial paperwork and I expect you to keep a straight-A average in school. Perform well, and I will recommend Enji’s agency take you on as a secretary or staff member. And—remember, of the three of our children, you are still carrying on the Todoroki name.”

Kurama wants to hiss and spit in his face, but he doesn’t. He’s not that kind of person anymore — Naruto and Minato both saw to that, though Kushina would find it funny. He almost does so. He’s mortal now, and if he instigates something here, he won’t make it until his chakra is mature enough to leave undiscovered. 

Instead, Kurama gives him a brief, stiff nod of acknowledgement.

“Yes, father. I understand,” he says, because there’s nothing else he can do.

He needs full command of his chakra to leave. On the off chance someone has a quirk that lets them track emotions or worse, an empath who  _ looks _ for him if his family tries to find him again, he needs to be able to hide his tracks. He begins training to control his chakra and redoubles his efforts to lock down his signature and suppress it to the point of blending in with his surroundings.

The next morning, Kurama is up at 0500 for his lessons. He begins with quirkless sparring—this time, though, Saru uses his own quirk to train Kurama’s pain tolerance—and then several hours of incredibly boring but incredibly useful tutoring on how to run a business, how to trick people into giving up information, and how to be a very sneaky boy. Kurama takes to the darker side of the lessons like a fish who’s just been put into water, and he lets his academic knowledge shine. 

These are many lessons he’s learned before.

Now he gets a second chance at them and he learns how  _ this _ society works.

In fact, he lets himself shine enough to be put on an accelerated academic track. If only to get to where he can legally disown his family. Enji grows more distant by the week and Akari hates him. He wants nothing to do with his parents.

Some days he wishes he could still talk to his real father, but with the rabbit goddess bitch ripping him out of the afterlife, he won’t be able to until he manages to truly die,  _ again _ , which will take one  _ hell _ of a long time. So instead, he will make him proud — him and Naruto — and he will tear this society apart if he has to, to make the world better.

These days, Kurama thinks he understands how Obito felt; what made him turn to Madara the moment the older, insane, Uchiha turned to  _ him _ and tried to do more. Of course, he never says a peep about his memories or his chakra training, and the moment he learns how to make a Kage Bunshin he sets about making several that sneak off to the park in Henge and do several hours’ worth of training to get used to his smaller body.

He can tell he’ll never be as big and strong as either of his siblings, but he feels no reason to be — though his chakra will let him grow to full height, regardless of malnutrition. And his chakra gives him an edge, and his memory — well. There is a reason Todoroki Kirin only remembered who he was at the age of eight. A child’s mind is not made to handle the memories of an adult, let alone the full memories of the strongest of the Nine Bijuu. It’s only once he turns ten that his head stops hurting as he looks at time, and he understands everything.

He spends the next two years learning absolute control.

Every night, he dreams of Naruto. Of the moment he was ripped away from his best friend, forcibly reincarnated into a small body and remembering exactly how much  _ pain _ those first years caused him. Of wishing for his best friend back again. His grades maintain straight-A average, all the way through middle school as Enji grows into a hero in his own right, striking up a rivalry with the formerly-quirkless man, Kino Kazuki, and his friend in Enji’s year, Jizou Honoka. It’s  _ incredibly close _ , enough so that Enji is sometimes incredibly frustrated with the girl and sometimes very happy to have a rival.

Kurama earns his meals and alone time, even sleep, through virtue of his training. He is far more muscular and lithe than any eleven-going-on-twelve-year-old who isn’t a hero should be, by the time Enji is set to graduate from UA. Watching Kino on television is  _ painful _ (he only manages it in the middle of the night, or on HeroTube) because it’s so familiar, those shining blue eyes and bright spiky blond hair and all that determination — it makes Kurama ache for home. He earns the right to watch the UA tournaments through performing incredibly well on his exams, and through the virtue of Saru being determined that he will know how to market Enji before he even gets into high school. Thing is, Kurama’s more interested in the internet, and after finding a way onto his father’s office computer he teaches himself how to steal from the man. 

(If he’s going to leave, Saru is going to hurt for it. He deserves it.)

Akari’s school doesn’t broadcast nearly as many sporting events. She’s congratulated in equal measure to Enji and praised, and works with him on how to use Infrared — when he mentions that it might function like radar, at the table, he expects to be disciplined. Instead, he’s forced to help her train her in her quirk as well as keep up with all of his studies. It’s a mistake.

(He doesn’t give her everything. How can he? She’s never treated him kindly. Kitsune never reveal all of their secrets.)

Any normal child would crumble and break under the pressure and his parents do not value him. He’s not fooling himself into thinking any of them but Enji love him at all, either, and he barely sees Enji anymore. He is only here for what value he can bring to their family’s success. If this is what the Uchiha or Hyuuga clans were like, little wonder Uchiha Itachi snapped and murdered his clan — Kurama puts that thought aside, though, and ruthlessly uses his chakra gifts to experiment and explore his new world. Leaving a clone asleep is risky — sometimes his father will wake him in the middle of the night for situational awareness training — but it’s the best he can do because he has to get his own  _ jutsu _ training in  _ sometime _ .

(Of course, once he learns to make a Blood Clone, that all flies out the window and his Clone ends up suffering through the strain of training. He spends his time learning the rules of this society, the laws, and gets Saru in a lot of financial trouble in the process.)

The virtue of being one of the strongest bijuu, and of being loved by several humans and locked inside of even more, means that the knows practically every  _ jutsu _ that ever existed. Kurama just has to refine his own control over everything. And during one of these secret training sessions he accidentally realizes he’s memorized the Uzumaki clan library, and Konoha’s as well as the entire Forbidden Scroll. He spends the rest of that session caring for the animals around the training field.

A boy watches him on occasion, thinking he is unnoticed, but Kurama can feel him. He’s significantly younger than Kurama, and sticks to the shadows, with a faint feeling of  _ negation _ in his chakra signature—perhaps the Neutralizer’s son. No matter, though, as Kurama doesn’t use any large Area of Effect jutsu and almost all of the ones he’s practiced, bar the clone, can be pulled off with speed alone. 

Who’d believe a quirkless boy like Kirin had a quirk?

Still, Kurama is careful to only work on martial arts and meditation when he has an audience. The boy seems interested, and his chakra signature holds no signs or hint of malice. Just innocent curiosity. It almost reminds him of Matatabi.

Kurama is not going to join the Todoroki family’s agencies. He might still care for Enji a little, but this world has no desire for a little quirkless boy like Todoroki Kirin and Uzumaki Kurama can change a lot more than Todoroki Kirin can. He wants to change the world.

Unfortunately, as he learned from Naruto, change must happen from the inside.

He will become a hero, licensed or unlicensed, and he will change the world from the inside. He’s not sure he loves enough to change the entire system from the inside, but he is aware of vigilantes, and more and more that option appeals to him. The thing is, it’s too easy to be traced, if he’s not cautious, and if he only acts as a vigilante then the police will never leave him alone. Especially since it won’t give him the freedom to use all of his power, not unless he wants to be on the run.

It’s a problem for future Kurama. 

At home, Enji does his best (with how brainwashed he’s become), as Akari’s school is a boarding school, but more and more often he’s training or meditating (a habit he picked up from Kurama, oddly enough, but it helps him with finer control of his quirk, so Saru encourages it) with Saru and Akemi. Akari works hard at her own quirk and her own studies, enough to get lauded as a rescue hero and she gets her license the same week Enji is set to graduate from UA.

Kurama, by contrast, is practically forgotten about save for when he is learning marketing. His father is set to convince the quirkologist that his son has an invisible quirk — that of an eidetic memory — and Kurama wants to laugh because it’s no quirk. Then, of course, everything goes to shit when Enji isn’t made valedictorian of his class, but is beaten to the top spot by Jizou Honoka.

The ‘useless’ Jizou Honoka is made valedictorian by a single fraction of a percent — by  _ 0.2%  _ — and Saru hits the roof. Enji doesn’t come home that night, and Saru and Akemi both turn their attentions on Kurama. Kurama, though, is the strongest of the Nine, and the Heir of the Uzumaki bloodline — he’s learned over time that he  _ has _ the Uzumaki healing factor, it’s just taken time to kick in.

Still, to maintain his cover, he lets them attack him. Lets them think they killed him.

When his father sets fire to the house with him inside, in his fury, Kurama takes the opportunity to slip out using a variant of the Shunshin that Minato invented. He sets himself up as an adult, using a Henge, and he formally disowns Todoroki Saru and Todoroki Akemi. He also decides, from that day forward, that their credit in the hero community, and their standing, are his to destroy — though he will try to keep Enji out of it, as he’s at least never treated Kurama that poorly. He heads away from his usual training grounds in a nondescript adult form, looking very similar to Nara Shikaku minus the scarring, but with short hair, and takes off for the local wildlife preserve.

He is  _ shinobi _ . 

It hurts to know he was never loved save for what he could bring to the table, and it hurts to have almost nothing, but it doesn’t hurt to leave. Kurama has no qualms about stealing a bedroll and a few supplies like a Swiss Army Knife, a set of camping dishes, and two water bottles from the local mall, but they are all he takes. And of course, because he is  _ shinobi _ , no one will find him out here while he does some thinking.

He does steal some stationery and sealing supplies from the local calligraphy store, though he is careful to pay for everything from Saru’s bank account. He’ll settle in and once he’s sure his parents have had him declared dead, he can set up his new identity. Besides, he needs sealing supplies to camp effectively — he  _ is _ an Uzumaki, after all.

“I will make you proud, Naruto. I promise,” whispers Kurama, head bowed.

He will.

It’s not even a question at this point — if he wants to ever be able to face Naruto again in the afterlife he’ll have to do better than he did in his last life. But first and foremost is legally becoming Uzumaki Kurama, which he can do once his appearance finishes shifting — so in about a year.

And then he will do everything he can to make this world better.

In Naruto’s name, he will make this world better for the children who are hurt by its rules and the people on the outside. Because this time, he has the ability to act, he will. 

He hopes that somewhere, Naruto, Minato, and Kushina are proud of him for making this choice. Even if it means he never sees them again.

**Author's Note:**

> So, yes, a few things at the end here: 
> 
> 1) I have conflicting opinions on Itachi, but Kurama respects the hell out of him. He sacrificed his family for peace -- yes, it wasn't a good option, but no one ever has a 'good' option in his shoes, and he was THIRTEEN. Kurama respects that type of sacrifice and the pressure he was under, and how much he loved his family. I'm reasonably sure Tobi is the reason most of the Uchiha clan died that night, because he's an asshole.
> 
> 2) Yes, there is a reason Vigilante Kurama is in the title.
> 
> 3) The licensing and publicization of heroes is a more recent thing in this fanfic. Please bear with me as there are scary, scary villains out there and Kurama is absolutely not one of them. He has a moral code, it's just not society's.
> 
> 4) I h/c that Tensei is the eldest son. Thoughts on Tensei befriending Kurama? I know that a lot of people insist on him befriending Mic, Aizawa, and Nemuri, but I like the idea of Tensei remembering growing up in a world where heroes weren't the be-all end-all and that's one reason he's both 100% okay with vigilanteism and such a stickler for teamwork. I also h/c that the WWP are all closer in age to Tensei. That, or I'm going to stick in Tensei's sister.
> 
> 5) Kurama is absolutely an Uzumaki now; Kushina adopted him in the Pure Lands and Naruto insists. His preferred human form was about 6'1", redheaded and violet-eyed with the dark fox whisker marks. At their insistence, he also gave Minato and Kushina the whiskers. (Tobirama thought this was hilarious. Madara, not so much, but then Izuna started wearing them.)
> 
> 6) I will stand by my assertion that discrimination is a learned behavior.
> 
> Would anyone be interested in seeing Kurama befriend people from the parents' generation? The next chapter picks up 6 months to a year later. I am also undecided about where he's going to high school.


End file.
